Steve Jobs: Free iPhones for Apple Employees

[scotto07]

wow .. all of Apple going AT&T ... *silence*


also, now I am curious to know how much this gadget is actually costing Apple to manufacture .. if it is anything like $250, wouldn't a $250 cash bonus be a better 'gift'? Apple and AT&T are milking it for all its worth and more aren't they? .. .phewww

I would not be surprised if most Apple employees are already with AT&T because as employees we get 50% of the 2 year contract price of phones and 15% of monthly bill.

 

[nemaslov]

Well doesn't one have to activate the iPhone in order to use any of it's functions and doesn't one have a minimum monthly bill they pay to keep the device activated. Pick even the smallest monthly plan, would you pay that just to be able to use your iPod? I don't think so, errr wellll would ya?--)))

I have an iPod too 80GB packed full with music and you are correct, I do NOT pay a monthly fee. But I DO pay every month to use my cell phone here in San Franciso and when I travel. I pay about 75 bucks a month for all the minutes and text messages I need. I do not get or have web or email access, with that at all. An equivalent iPhone plan for me would only add 20 bucks a month for unlimited WI FI data & email use. A good deal. Personally I could not give a damn about it's iPod use since it is too small, but I would not have to shlep my laptop around the city when I need emails for my work (self employed).

 

[pipas forjaz]

how much is steve giving away

if what is above is correct then steve is giving away abou 4,446,750 USD worth of iPhones. That at what it costs apple, not retail value. if we did it at that value it would be more like 10,672,200 USD.

how does this work in accounting? I wonder?

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

the ATT employees are going to be pissed

employees... yes. Company... no.
That's potential 17,000+ new AT&T customers

 

[technicolor]

employees... yes. Company... no.
That's potential 17,000+ new AT&T customers

No its not, because apple employees already had discount pricing on cingular plans.

 

[MacSA]

Yep, disappointed and unimpressed.... you sooooo called it there, sport.

Like when the Mac first came out, with arguably the most iconic product launch ever in the computer industry.... totally unimpressive.

And when each stunning iMac design came out (you know, the ones that won all those industrial design awards).... TOTALLY unimpressive.

And when the iPod came out, and the octocore MacPro, and the MacBook, and oh yeah, that humdrum little phone thing of theirs...... people are TOTALLY disappointed and unimpressed. I mean, nobody is even MENTIONING the iPhone in the press lately. Let's face it, there's no buzz whatsoever.

Nice to someone finally agrees with me.

And yes, you're correct, when it comes to Apple's COMPUTERS and SOFTWARE, there is ABSOLUTELY NO BUZZ WHATSOEVER anymore.

 

[spydr]

Has anyone noticed any recent reviews of the iPhone where the reviewer used a 4GB model? From what I've noticed, they've all been 8GB. And now they're giving Apple employees the higher-end model as well. Is it typical Apple behavior to give out the high-end models, or can I go back to dreaming that they'll increase the capacity before launch?

Ha ha...there is no 4gb model! The employees have always received the least expensive iPod...now the least expensive iPhone. So the more expensive one should be 16gb model?!

Screw 3G and GPS...I am in...if my delusion is actually true

 

[spydr]

if what is above is correct then steve is giving away abou 4,446,750 USD worth of iPhones. That at what it costs apple, not retail value. if we did it at that value it would be more like 10,672,200 USD.

how does this work in accounting? I wonder?

Comes under company's ice cream and cake money

But seriously, it is a tiny sliver from that $2B profit they made last year.

 

[1984]

I'm surprised the press and especially MacRumors hasn't picked on this before. Apple didn't create the iPod's operating system. Read The Perfect Thing for more details. Apple did build the iPhone's OS and now it seems we may have confirmation that iPods too will run some variant of OS X. Very good news.

"There is one OS group that does Mac OS X for the Mac and the iPhone, as well as some iPods we're working on." -- Steve Jobs

Isn't anyone excited about touchscreen iPods running OS X at all? Sheesh.

 

[Butthead]

Yes, we've heard that kind of rhetoric many times before, and people have been pretty much disappointed and unimpressed when new products have arrived.

Oh no, really; Steve-o and Intel are now tight. I would expect to see pre-release, specially made for Apple, 45nm Penryn CPU's in the next iMac revision with LED screens, DDR3 RAM support w/pre-release DDR3 RAM @$1k/2GB, and the iMac will still be limited to support for 4GB total RAM, lol. I tell you, you will be floored by the next insanely great iMac's down the pipeline of Steve-0's reality distortion. 1st Mac's to have standard Blu-ray drives too

Hell, the initial run of the all new radically redesigned ultrathin iMac's will even have some engineering samples of Penryn in them, w/included voucher to get the real thing swapped in at any authorized Apple service center, once they ship from Intel(unlike the soldered on CPU's in the MB/MBP)...sure they will still overheat, and the LED screens will not be uniformly consistent in color output, but hey, we're talking bleeding edge (for about a month) technology here

 

[savar]

A good tactic. Probably a lot of Apple employees will evangelize even more emphatically once they have one in their hands. I can see this benefiting the company in a lot of ways, and it doesn't cost an outrageous amount of money -- what, $10,000, if that? But it looks really good.

Interesting math..at $500 each that $10,000 buys 20 iphones at retail price. Even if the marginal cost is only $100, thats still just 100 iphones.

I agree with your sentiment...its a cheap way to buy lots of good will. But its not *that* cheap.

 

[monke]

So if I were to become an Apple Employee, say today, would I get an iPhone?


I'm guessing the employees will have to buy a plan still. Unless they get something different.

 

[Avaritia]

I haven't heard anything, so I doubt this is true. It's just wishful thinking, Steve and Apple are awesome, but this isn't economically feasible, so no this is likely the biggest B.S. ever.

 

[Marx55]

New Mac OS X-based iPod VIDEO with landscape screen (much like iPhone but without phone capabilities). With 64 GB flash memory inside or the new 120 GB 1.8-inch disk.

We want tons for our University if they run Kenote and PowerPoint and can be used for wireless computerless presentations.

 

[Object-X]

Pipeline

What does product pipeline mean? A year? Like, already done and ready to be released? Ahhh, I need a new iMac now, and now I can't bring myself to buy one yet.

 

[Object-X]

...if they run Kenote and PowerPoint and can be used for wireless computerless presentations.

That would be an excellent feature for the iPhone.

 

[macduke]

yeah, i posted yesterday in the iphone forum an email about this town hall meeting for the employees. my friend said there could be big news and was rare. i bet he is freaking out because he was planning on buying one and now he gets it free. he hasn't got off work yet, supposed to keep me updated on the lines outside the store. i have a real job, can't get off until 5pm. hope i can get one.

 

[AlexisV]

So if I were to become an Apple Employee, say today, would I get an iPhone?

Ah, you've had to have worked for them for a year I'm afraid!

 

[geoffy]

This is actually believable, especially since employees will likely have to pay for their own service plans.

 

[FoxyKaye]

Regarding Macs:

The first leg is the Mac business, which Steve addressed by saying that they have the "best Macs" in the new product pipeline ever right now, and that the stuff coming out in the next year is "off the charts."

Regarding OS X:

There is one OS group that does Mac OS X for the Mac and the iPhone, as well as "some iPods we're working on."

The new Macs are so far "off the charts" they don't exist. I'm so sick of the iPhone, at this point I'll believe it when I see it. Or, does the fact that the iMacs and Minis haven't been updated in just shy of a year simply escape Apple? I was waiting for the next revisions to purchase for our organization, but at this rate I've had enough time to buy all the parts off of eBay and build them.

Gods, I just *knew* the switch from Apple Computer to Apple, Inc. would precipitate this nonsense - it's like they're finalizing Leopard on cuneiform tablets and developing the next Macs by first buying a mine in Africa and smelting the components by hand. I'm all for market diversification, but the delays and excuses for its computing products coming out of Apple because of the iPhone are ridiculous.

 

[Stella]

I haven't heard anything, so I doubt this is true. It's just wishful thinking, Steve and Apple are awesome, but this isn't economically feasible, so no this is likely the biggest B.S. ever.

Why do you think is economically unfeasible?

More curiously, why, because *you* haven't heard anything, makes this story wishful thinking? Are you an Apple employee, at the higher ranks, perhaps? ( I'm guessing, probably not!)

BTW: The total charge for Apple would be a drop in the ocean in comparison to the profits they made this year...

 

[Random Ping]

What does product pipeline mean? A year? Like, already done and ready to be released? Ahhh, I need a new iMac now, and now I can't bring myself to buy one yet.

I am sure they have several versions in the pipeline at the same time. Perhaps just as interesting is not new versions of the existing product lines (e.g., MacBook or Mac Pro) but an entirely new market category for Apple like an Ulltra-Mobile PC (UMPC).

New iMacs will probably be released in July or August. I suspect Apple doesn't want to draw any attention away from the iPhone just now.

 

[Avaritia]

Why do you think is economically unfeasible?

More curiously, why, because *you* haven't heard anything, makes this story wishful thinking? Are you an Apple employee, at the higher ranks, perhaps? ( I'm guessing, probably not!)

BTW: The total charge for Apple would be a drop in the ocean in comparison to the profits they made this year...

Because it would cost a lot of money, apple is in to make money, not spend it friviously. Not to mention when was the last time you heard Apple do such a thing? iPhone is undoubtedly cool but so where the intel macs which was a much larger leap than this.

 

[zorinlynx]

Because it would cost a lot of money, apple is in to make money, not spend it friviously. Not to mention when was the last time you heard Apple do such a thing? iPhone is undoubtedly cool but so where the intel macs which was a much larger leap than this.

I believe Apple gives its employees free iPods. I know someone who works for an Apple store and got one for free, so...

They have done this before.

 

[Mainyehc]

Nice move. A friend of mine works there, he'll surely be pleased (unless he was already one of those who had one months ago). If you're out there.... Hi Clarus!

You're friends with the DogCow?!

(sorry, couldn't resist... ).